


J'adoube

by cadmean



Category: Demonata Series - Darren Shan
Genre: Au of sorts, Canon-Typical Violence, Developing Friendships, Gen, post Hell's Heroes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-10
Updated: 2016-09-10
Packaged: 2018-08-14 07:46:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8004247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cadmean/pseuds/cadmean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bec, Kernel, and Grubbs set up the new board.</p>
            </blockquote>





	J'adoube

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DoreyG](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoreyG/gifts).



They start off with a bang.

_Let there be light—_

_And there was light._

The three of them fast-forward a bit, after that.

 

* * *

 

Bec watches the dinosaurs; then watches the second bang, too. Smaller, that one. Nevertheless devastating. Generations of animals rule the land, sea, and sky for billions of years afterward, and there’s not much to do except watch and take note of the curious ways in which life manages to prevail.

The first humans show up eventually, and even Grubbs can’t help but watch them – out of worry that they might accidentally get involved with the Demonata too early, he says, but Bec can see the faint pride in his eyes when one of the cavemen first discovers how to use fire.

This is the universe they created, and if they want to take the time to marvel at their creation, then Bec figures that they have certainly earned it.

 

* * *

 

The first time the three of them actively get together to talk about the course the world they have created should take, it’s about Bec.

“Our created world’s Bec,” Bec announces to Grubbs and Kernel, “is about to be born.”

They’re sitting in the living room of the recreation of Dervish’s house, outside of time. Grubbs is sprawled across one of the sofas, looking half-asleep – the Neanderthals were interesting, sure enough, but the last couple of centuries haven’t been to his tastes. Same old, same old. Kings rise and fall and really, he had told Kernel so loudly that Bec couldn’t help but overhear, how does anyone expect him to keep track of which usurper has the rightful claim? Kernel himself was all too happy watching the different empires get into petty fights with each other, though Bec had the feeling that he was viewing the whole thing as a giant, live version of one of his computer games.

He’s now sitting on a chair, absorbed in a book she had conjured for him some weeks earlier. At her words he looks up and snaps the books closed, muttering, “Well.”

Grubbs lifts his head from the sofa for a moment. “What’re we going to do?”

“I can’t die in the cave, or else Death will become conscious in this universe, too.”

Grubbs pointedly yawns. “So? That’s easy. We just stop the demons from crossing in the first place – no tunnel, no way for you to die there, no reason for Death to awaken.”

“We don’t need to do _anything_ ,” Kernel cuts, but he does so slowly, almost as if he’s talking to himself. “Let everything proceed as it did the first time around: Drust’s brother creates the tunnel, Drust takes Bec as his apprentice. Lord Loss shows up, and we’ll come with him to give that universe’s Bec enough power to get them to the tunnel. Beranabus then kills Drust inside the tunnel. Bec—“ He glances at her, almost apologetically. “Bec dies inside the tunnel, too. She dies _for good_. And without the Kah-Gash, she won’t be able to come back, and Death won’t be forced to awaken.”

“We remove the Kah-Gash.” Bec nods. It’s what makes the most sense, considering how much trouble the mere existence of it causes further down the line. She’s not quite sure whether she likes the idea of her new-universe’s self dying all alone in a cave _again_ , but there’s not a whole lot of other options she can think of right now. Bran needs the motivation to become the magician the Disciples depend on, and—

It’s Grubbs of all people who interrupts that train of thought. “Does she have to die, though? We remove the Kah-Gash, yeah – but why can’t we intervene at the last moment?” He looks at Bec, his expression grim. “From what you said, the only reason you weren’t able to escape the tunnel the first time around was because you Lord Loss put that geas—geis— _whatever_ on you.”

Bec’s eyes widen.

“So, that shouldn’t apply this time around, should it? He’s on our side now, as much as I hate the thought of it. We’ll talk to him, threaten him if that’s what it takes; either way we’ll get him to let you escape the tunnel at the end. No problem, right?”

Kernel lights up at the suggestion, eagerly leaning forward as he says, “Right. Why not? We could—“

“No,” says Bec, and immediately silence falls. “We can’t do that. If this Bec survives, we have no idea of knowing how she might affect the timeline.” It is the very same question they had mulled over before they had made the decision to build the new universe. There was no pressing need to find an answer back then – she has the feeling that even now, all three of them would prefer to simply let it go unanswered for another couple of millennia.

“You’re saying that you’re okay with your new self dying, am I getting that right?” Grubbs, as usual, makes a show of being tough, but Bec can see in his eyes that he’s as uncomfortable with the decision as she is. _That_ of all things is comforting, in a way; the concern they both show for her alternate self is touching.

Even so. “There’s no other way, unless we want to drastically start changing things already.”

There’s a longer, heavier silence as each of them contemplates the ramifications of the choice now presented to them. But not even Grubbs speaks up in the end, and so the matter is settled. Bec can’t decide whether she’s relieved or disappointed.

“Rome’s being ridiculous again,” Kernel says eventually, without quite looking at either Grubbs or Bec and so obviously trying for something light-hearted that Bec, despite everything, can’t help a smile. He nods at the large TV hanging off of the wall, willing a feed of the falling empire’s latest disaster to appear on the screen. “Anybody want to watch?”

 

* * *

 

The next time, Kernel comes to her first.

It’s the turn of the twentieth century for human civilization and Bec, though occupied with what is going on in Asia, has expected him to show up for a while now.

Kernel catches sight of her the moment he walks into her viewing room. She had claimed the room fairly early on, fashioning it to her interests; the decoration tends to change with her whims but the one constant is the large TV screen stuck fast to one side of the room. From it, she is able to watch the happenings of the world as long and in as much detail as she wants to, having taken inspiration from the TV set Dervish used to have in his house in the old universe.

Kernel looks uncomfortable as he begins, “It’s about—“

“I know,” Bec interrupts him gently. “And I agree. But we should take this to Grubbs, too.”

They go to him. Grubbs, as Bec thought, is not amused.

“It’s Juni Swan! You can’t honestly want her to have a normal life, not after—” Grubbs makes a choked-off sound, then snarls at the both of them. The expression looks entirely too wolf-like for his human features, but Bec meets his glare with the calmness she has cultivated during the years spent trapped inside the stone cave. After a moment, Grubbs says, “She killed _so many people_. Bec, you—“

“In the old universe, she did.” Kernel’s voice is quiet, yet even so his tone makes it clear that he’s not going to change his mind.  

Grubb’s voice is plaintive, now. “Bec—“

Bec shakes her head. “Small changes,” she says, “where we think them to be appropriate. That’s what we agreed on. We’re almost at the point where we should stop guiding events; changing Juni Swan’s fate should have no impact on things, and if it makes Kernel happy...”

Grubbs looks as if he wants to explode in her face, but then, just as Bec is certain that she’s going to have to make herself a new body after this conversation is through, he deflates. His shoulders sag, and though he keeps his head high he eventually nods at her and Kernel. “Okay. Okay, but I’m not getting involved in this. If you want to save Juni Swan, you’re going to have to do it yourself. I’m not going anywhere near that woman.”

With that he leaves the room – simply dissipating into nothingness, until Bec feels him make another body for himself at the far side of the house.

She muses, briefly, how differently the argument would have gone if Grubbs was not planning to to give Dervish a stronger heart a few years down the line.

 

* * *

 

“This is not what I had in mind when I talked about changing fate,” Kernel mutters half-heartedly. Bec is fairly certain that if he weren’t for all intents and purposes nothing more than a manifestation of his own will, he’d be yawning.

Bec shrugs, though she can’t help but smile at him. They’re in her viewing room, intermittently checking in on Nadia Moore. She’s a toddler and, much to Kernel’s consternation, extremely interested in spending hours at a time drawing pictures. “I thought you wanted to save her?”

Flopping back into his chair, Kernel closes his eyes for a few seconds and takes a long breath. “I do,” he reassures her somewhat exasperatedly, “but this is boring. We should just fast-forward a bit, until we get to the important things. And you had my back against Grubbs, don’t forget. You’re in this just as much as I am, now, like it or not.”

Bec shrugs. If asked, she doubts she would be able to explain why exactly she had chosen to back Kernel instead of Grubbs in the matter – but if pressed, she would have pointed to the swirling mass of memories she now holds inside herself. Floating somewhere between the Roman Empire and a tiny puppy's first steps, are the memories of Juni Swan.

They are there, Bec knows this. Even so she has not yet gone through them, although, as with all the memories of the people the Kah-Gash destroyed, small bits of memories sometimes leak through every now and then. With most people, Bec simply pushes them back again. But for Juni Swan – and Beranabus, Dervish, Bill-E, Meera – she does not.

Instead, she listens.

The first memory fragment of Juni’s she sees is an image of Kernel. Younger-looking than Bec knows him, and there is a sort of innocence to his eyes that indicate that he is yet to truly come to terms with the horrors the Demonata bring with them. The two of them topple out of a portal, with Kernel dismantling it as soon as they are through. There’s fear and apprehension and a bit of self-loathing on his face, but for Nadia there is only joy. She is free, free, at long last rid of Beranabus—

Bec startles, there. She knows full well that it was in small part Beranabus who created Juni Swan, but the all-encompassing hate Nadia has for him is surprising, and it only grows when the old magician catches up to her once more and drags her back into the realm of the Demonata.

Juni’s unbridled joy at finally having escaped Beranabus’ claws once and for all is a palpable constant throughout most of her memories past Nadia Moore’s death. Yet there are moments when she questions herself – blood splattering her new pale hair and paler skin, the remains of some demon who’d offended Lord Loss still clutched in her hands – and wonders, very briefly, if it was all worth it.

Juni Swan, Bec learns, has no illusions about what she has done, or the things she is doing. Will do.

And yet not once does she think of leaving Lord Loss behind as she had left Beranabus, and as the year pass her moments of self-doubt become increasingly infrequent. They do not, however, ever completely stop.

The Demonata are terrible creatures; Bec knows that better than most. To willingly choose to align yourself with one of them takes a kind of desperation that is singular in its intensity. This, too, Bec knows firsthand.

It’s not that she forgives the old Juni Swan for everything she did. But Bec is no saint, either, and at the very least she can understand what drove Nadia Moore to become Juni Swan.

Behind her on the screen, the small child finishes her drawing and proudly presents it to her parents.

 

* * *

 

“Juni,” Lord Loss had told her once in the old, destroyed universe, “reminded me of you. She was not nearly as powerful as you, of course, but she was ever so determined to make the most of the hand she had been dealt.” With a sigh, he had then added, “Admirable, if, of course, ultimately futile.”

At the time Bec had only nodded and focused back on the game of chess they had been playing, but now, watching the little girl grow, she wonders.

 

* * *

 

Nadia Moore is only barely out of childhood when her parents figure out the best way to monetize her strange powers. Truth be told they most likely would have begun even earlier, but even now there is only so much you can teach a seven-year-old about business practices. From what Bec can tell, though, the young girl seems to be having fun for the most part: Nadia likes the dressing-up part of being a fortuneteller more than actually telling fortunes, but with a bit of coaching from her parents she learns what to tell people and how to try and hide it if she sees anything unfortunate in their future.

Bec watches with interest, and when she feels like she’s watched long enough, seen enough, she decides to pay Nadia Moore a visit.

It’s very easy to make a body for herself once more; for the Kah-Gash, no limitations exist. She pops into existence a few feet away from the field where the travelling fair has put up its tents for the week. Having a proper physical body for a change takes her a moment to adjust to, but before long Bec is making her way toward the fair, nodding at the people she passes.

She’s kept a close eye on the people travelling together with Nadia, just in case one of them decides to prematurely summon a demon or, as Kernel put it, do anything else ridiculous. There’s been no demon-summonings as of yet, but it enables Bec to make her way through the fair fairly easily, rounding corners and stepping onto foot-worn paths until she comes to a halt in front of a purple, gaudily-decorated tent.

Bec steps inside without hesitation.

It takes a few seconds before her eyes adjust to the dim light inside – theatrical though they were, Nadia Moore’s parents clearly did not believe overly much in candles. Only a single one sits on a table in the middle of the tent, and its flickering flame casts the surrounding area in an ever-shifting gloom. There’s a crystal ball situated smack dab in the middle of the table. Its surface does not seem to reflect any of the light from the candle, instead looking almost as if it is filled with shadows.

“Hello,” a voice says from the darkness on the other side of the table. It’s young and high, though trying – and failing – to sound suitably smoky and ominous. “I am the great child psychic, Nadia Le Tarot. Have you come to hear tell of your future, oh mysterious stranger?”

Bec smiles. “Certainly. What can you tell me?”

“I will tell you the future!” Nadia announces happily, gesturing very dramatically for Bec to sit down in front of the crystal ball.  “I see lots of good things for you!” It’s obviously something her parents have told her to say, but Bec goes along with it and nods and smiles as if she’s pleased.

Then Nadia scrunches up her face and presses her eyes together very hard. Her voice doesn’t change, and neither does the temperature inside the tent drop drastically – there are no obvious indicators, but even so Bec knows that whatever the girl says next will be a true premonition. “Your fate is clouded, and I can't see much. But--uhmm! We’re going to meet again. And not just once! Many times. We’re—“ Here she falters, and even as Bec makes the decision to reach out and comfort her, the young girl visibly takes a deep breath and continues, “It’s all very far away. But Bec? _Well done_.”

Her tone is entirely earnest – Bec flees the tent before she can say anything else.

On her way through the fair in search of a secluded spot to disappear in, weaving past inebriated visitors and too many children, she catches sight of Beranabus from out of the corner of her eyes.

 

* * *

 

Bec and Kernel give Beranabus nine days with Nadia before intervening. They hamper her power while she is with him – not snuffing it out entirely, but suppressing it enough for Beranabus to start doubting whether he had caught himself a fluke, after all.

When they arrive at the cave Beranabus has made his temporary home, he’s left Nadia alone inside. Kernel materializes right near the entrance of the cave and takes a moment to throw a look outside; Bec, following right after him, heads immediately into the cave. She has spent too many years trapped inside one herself to want to keep Nadia in there for even a moment longer.

She finds her lying on a makeshift cot at the back of the cave, eyes closed but dirty face streaked with tears. “Nadia,” Bec begins.

The girl startles at her words, and abruptly sits up to face Bec and Kernel with her hands balled into fists. "Who are you? Are you with that old man?” When neither of them immediately answer, she goes on, “Because I’ll tell you the same thing I told him: there’s something wrong with this place. I can’t see into the future at all, and yelling at me isn’t going to do anything about that.”

She sounds confident but Bec can see her lip quivering, and that stoic endurance endears the girl to her more than anything.

“We’re not with Beranabus,” Kernel speaks up. Cautiously he makes to kneel down next to the bed, gesturing for Bec to follow suit. “We’re here to rescue you. Would you like to go back home, Nadia?”

“ _Of course_ ,” the girl all but hisses, and Bec can’t help but smile in sympathy. Lord Loss had been right – she knows exactly what she wants, even in this new universe. “Let’s go home.”

There really isn’t much else to say.

Kernel leaves with Nadia, but Bec decides to stay behind a while longer.  She dare not show herself to Bran yet, but with him being right there outside the cave, sleeping, the temptation to do so is overwhelming.

She knows that even going to only have a look at him would be disastrous, though – Bran was always powerful, and she’s not quite sure how well she can hide herself from him. And if he notices that she’s – that _something_ is here, in any case --, he would think to go look in on Nadia, and that Bec simply cannot allow.

Instead of going out to see Bran, therefore, she rips out a blank page from one of the books lying around and begins penning a letter to Beranabus.

_Remember Drust_ , she writes _. Remember who killed him, and why._ _Let children be children._

 

* * *

 

Nadia Moore does not spend several miserable years being dragged from one demon realm to another by Beranabus. Instead, she and Kernel appear in front of her parent’s trailer. It is night-time, and the fair they travel with has already wound down and been closed for the day.

Inside the trailer, the lights are on and voices can be heard. Kernel later tells Bec that though he could not make out exactly what they were saying, he was fairly certain that he heard someone crying – and then, when he’d seen Nadia off with a nod and a wave and told her to go ahead, there were even more tears and desperately-tight hugs.

 

* * *

 

Nadia Moore does not die inside Lord Loss’ castle, having been driven into the arms of the demon master by desperation. Instead, she ends her life with the travelling fair on her own terms.

“I want to make something out of myself,” she tells her friends from the travelling fair on her fifteenth birthday. “Fortune telling is fun and all, but I want to see the world and not just the inside of a tent for the rest of my life.”

One of the other girls asks, “But what about your parents? They’d never approve if you were to travel.” They all know how protective Nadia’s parents are of her, ever since she went missing for two weeks.

Nadia only shrugs, however. “That’s why I won’t be telling them. I’ve got it all figured out: food, shelter, the route I want to take. Plus,” she winks, “you know I can see the future.”

“But—Are you going to be alright, out there in the world?”

Nadia smiles. “I’ll be fine.”

A year later, checking in on Nadia only to find her happily exchanging stories with a palm reader in India, Bec is glad to say that this particular premonition has indeed come true.

 

* * *

 

Sometimes, Bec knows, Nadia awakens in a cold sweat with faint images of a castle made of spiderwebs still lingering in the recesses of her mind. Bec keeps an eye on this, but the dreams become more and more rare until, one day, Lord Loss joins her in her viewing room. He hovers uncertainly at the door until she gestures for him to come inside, and even then the demon master looks to be not entirely comfortable. It is uncharacteristic of him to show such emotion, and Bec is immediately wary.

“Call it selfishness if you want,” he tells her when she broaches the topic of Nadia’s dreams.

“Selfishness?”

“I am one of the Demonata, Bec. It is one of our defining traits.” There is an almost guilty look on his face, though, and it takes Bec so aback that she does not move to stop him when he leaves.

There are no more dreams after that.

 

* * *

 

The year is 1935. Nadia Moore has just passed her twentieth birthday, and some things are inevitable.

In the years she has spent raveling the world, Bec has watched Nadia come into her powers. Her gift of prophecy is still more happenstance than something she can call upon willingly, but over the course of various thwarted demon crossings she has come to terms with using magic itself, as well. Now that they have changed the course of history Bec and Kernel have nothing to compare her new life to, but since she is not yet being forced to fight the Demonata by Beranabus, they both figure they’ve done well.

When the time comes Bec alerts Kernel, and together, from the inside of the house they built, they watch Nadia Moore face off against her first demon.

It happens in England.

“Of course it would,” Kernel notes, somewhat sourly.

Nadia has only just returned to the country after several years of absence; she comes back to her parents as an older, more world-weary woman. They are relieved to see her – she has kept up with them via letters during the course of her travels, but it is nevertheless something else to see your child hale and whole in person.

To celebrate, they head off into town and to a restaurant. Nadia seems to be having fun as far as Bec can tell; the food looks good, too.

The window into the realm of the Demonata is torn open just as the waiter brings the family their deserts. There’s a loud screeching sound as the human summoner is ripped apart by the magic she exerted – but the window is opened, and the demon leaps through within seconds and begins to tear through the people unfortunate enough to be within reach of its claws.

Remaining remarkably calm, Nadia grabs her parents by the arms and drags them out of their chairs and away from where the demon is rampaging. Once her parents are safely out of the restaurant, Nadia Moore turns back around and goes to face the demon. Magic crackles at her fingertips, more potent than any time before – there’s a look of wonder on her face, coupled with a fierce determination. She has seen this coming, Bec knows, and she is prepared.

The moment Nadia rounds the corner leading back into the main room, the demon is upon her.

The portal at the other side of the room is still open, a blistering, festering rip in the reality of this world. Nadia only has a second to assess it before she is greeted by a clawed hand going straight for her eyes – she dodges to the side and out of the way, then quickly brings up a hand herself to touch the demon’s arm. It explodes in a shower of blood and gore, drenching the side of her body turned toward the demon.

The demon, a large thing with entirely too many eyestalks, screeches but is only slightly deterred. It makes to regenerate the arm Nadia blasted apart, but before it can do so she has cut off its other arm with a sweeping gesture that releases a cutting edge of magical energy aimed at its shoulder. One of its legs quickly follows, but before Nadia can go for the head it kicks out with its remaining appendage.

The clawed foot catches Nadia straight in the chest and she goes flying across the room – the wall meets her back with a sickening wet crunch. She half sits, half lies there for a moment, crumpled and breathing heavily. Then, with an effort that makes her head spin and her face blanch, she begins to drag herself up.

And then there is a flash of brilliant light – Nadia manages to screw her eyes shut just in time, but Bec sees that the remaining demon is not so lucky. It grabs at its eyes with its half-regenerated hand, but it is too late. A series of pops, and the demon is now effectively blind.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” a voice quips from the direction of the portal, “so where does that leave you?”

Another, gruffer voice: “Kill it already. We’re wasting time here.”

The demon squeals. Then it abruptly falls silent.

Slowly, Nadia dares to open her eyes for more than a squint. The first thing she sees is the demon: it is dead; its head torn off while its eyestalks are—Nadia shudders. She manages to keep the contents of her stomach where they belong, though, and on legs that feel like jelly she drags herself up into a standing position. It is only then that she properly notices the two people standing across from her: one is old, grizzled, and looking entirely nonplussed, while the other is younger-looking.

None of them notice the second demon until it already has half of the younger man’s head in its jaws.

Nadia reels back in shock as the demon clamps down, blood and gore squashing out from between its teeth – her head hits the wall with a crack, but she manages to tap into the magic clouding the room and heals herself before any damage is done. She briefly deliberates healing herself completely, but in the end settles for doing just enough to allow her to stand without pain. There’ll be time for the rest later, she hopes, but the demon in front of her, licking its bloodstained snout, takes priority.

All of this takes place over the course of only a few seconds. Beranabus has only just brought his hands up to grab at the demon, his fingers like claws reaching for the demon’s throat, when the demon lets out what can only be described as a surprised yelp. With a determined shout Nadia tears the demon’s arm she has grabbed onto away from its body, the skin and muscle and ultimately bone of its shoulder being ripped apart in one terrible pull. Beranabus, never one to be shown up, slashes at the demon’s throat and it is only then, missing an arm and bleeding profusely from a neck that has become entirely too thin to support its head, that it lets go of the body it holds in its jaws.

It is the last thing it is able to do before Nadia and Beranabus almost simultaneously tear into it.

 

* * *

 

Juni Swan does not come into existence inside the mangled universes of the Old Creatures’ chessboard, a secret to all. Instead, after the second demon has been torn apart and Beranabus turns to her and asks who she is, Nadia Moore considers for a moment, shrugs, and says, “Call me Juni Swan.”

Perhaps it is because a subconscious part of her recognizes the old man from the vague nightmares she’s had, on and off, since she was kidnapped as a child. Perhaps it is simply because she has had a lot of time over the years she’s spent travelling to decide what she wants out of life, and has come to the conclusion that if part of it is a cool new name for herself then there are certainly worse things to spend time deliberating. Perhaps there’s no real reason for it at all, and the name is simply a strange leftover from the destroyed universe. Bec doesn’t know, and just this once she has no _desire_ to know, either.

“Juni Swan,” Beranabus echoes. If he recognizes the young girl he kidnapped years ago in the woman now standing across from him, he hides it so well that even Bec can’t tell one way or the other. “I’m Beranabus. Perhaps you’ve heard of me.”

Juni, still looking somewhat dazed but getting better by the second, nods.

“There’s another crossing going to happen in less than an hour, at a concert – we need to hurry, and as you have perhaps noticed my assistant won’t be able to actually _be_ of assistance any longer. I need your help.”

Juni makes to answer, and inside the viewing room, Kernel agitatedly turns to Bec. “We can’t let her do this—you know how miserable she was in the destroyed universe.”

But there is a light in Juni’s eyes as she steps forward, toward Beranabus – a determined look that goes remarkably well with the gore still streaked across half her body. Bec shakes her head at Kernel with a fond, slightly proud smile. “She’s not a child anymore; she’ll be fine. And we’re going to have to let go at some point.”

And so Juni Swan goes to meet Beranabus, Master of the Disciples, on her own terms.

 

* * *

 

The three of them let the world’s fate slip ever so carefully out of their hands and back into those of humanity shortly after the new universe’s Grubbs arrives in Carcery Vale.

The new universe’s Bec died alone in a cave, hundreds of years ago. Her bones are dust, and in the whole world only two beings remember her. One is an old, old man wracked intermittently by guilt and notions of heroic grandeur; the other one is actively working together with them, squatting in his castle of webs like the overgrown spider he plays at being. It is not ideal; Bec thinks she would have enjoyed living with the people of her rath and having a peaceful life instead, but her happiness then would most likely have catastrophic consequences for everyone else. So she makes do in other ways: she watches the new universe they built and the fates they changed with glowing pride and takes great care to lay out events for the best possible outcome.

Cornelius Fleck, the three of them had decided, would get what he didn’t have in the destroyed universe: a normal life, with a normal sibling. With the power of the Kah-Gash it is very, very easy to save Annabella Fleck, and Kernel does so with great pleasure. There is no Demon Thief in this new universe, no lost brother, and most of all no desperate chase through the various realms of the Demonata in pursuit of someone who was never lost to begin with.

The fate of Grubbs and his family had been a difficult decision, however. As with the Black Plague, the question they had to face was devastating in its simplicity: where to draw the line? All three of them agree that the universe they built should be kept as similar to the destroyed one as possible. Save for all the demons, and Death growing a consciousness, and the horrible last few years leading up to the demon apocalypse – but, essentially, still the same universe.

Yet they have changed Kernel’s fate for the better already. Grubbs’, they decide, should follow suit. It is much more difficult, however, and the three of them spend several days trying to figure out the best way of going about saving Grubbs’ family while not upsetting the natural state of the universe too much.

In the end, they settle for what Grubbs gleefully calls “Grady intervention” and what essentially amounts to a giant, continent-spanning game of pass the message: Juni Swan, somewhere in Taiwan, gets an unexpected vision of the future. It shows a man and woman playing chess for their lives while their daughter sits on the sidelines, watching her parents battle demons and try to outsmart a demon master. With all the connections she has made, it is all too easy to pass that information on to the right people: to Sharmila, to Shark, and finally to Dervish.

He arrives at Cal Grady’s house just as his brother, Sharon, and Gret ready themselves to face Lord Loss. There’s an argument – of course there would be – but in the end, Cal relents. It is Dervish and Cal who face down Lord Loss and his familiars, and since Grubbs and the other two have had a word with the demon master, the two brothers’ victory is close but final.

“You owe me,” Lord Loss tells them afterward. “You know I do not like to lose.”

“Yeah, stuff it,” Grubbs laughs, “They would've beaten you even without our interference. And besides -- you owe us a whole lot already. You’re not even _close_ to being even with us.”

This, then, is the universe they created: for humanity and the Demonata, a world that would not be destroyed. For their friends, their acquaintances, and their one-time enemies, another, better chance at life.

 

* * *

 

“And what about us? We did all the hard work; I reckon we should be able to reap the reward as well,” Grubbs had asked, fairly early on.

“What would you want your reward to be, then?”

“Well,” Grubbs had thought about it for a moment, “It’s all nice and great just watching the universe and everyone in it and poking people here and there. But hell, I didn’t go through all this trouble just to watch from the sidelines, you know? I want to be a part of it, even if it's just for a little while.”

“I agree,” Kernel had cut in, nodding vigorously. “We did just fine building the new universe up, we deserve to be able to enjoy it for a change.”

“Just popping into our new bodies every once in a while shouldn’t be too bad, right? As long as we don’t overdo it,” Grubbs had mused out loud.

“I mean—

“We could!”

“We could.”

“And we should, too!”

The two of them, grinning, had then turned to Bec and their happy expressions had faltered as they recalled that she was the only one of them who would not have a body to return to.

Bec had only shrugged and told them to go ahead, back then. She’d had her own plans.

 

* * *

 

Dervish shows Grubbs around the house, then introduces him to Bill-E. “I have a habit of taking in strays,” he laughs, and gestures for Bill-E to pick up a couple of soda bottles for the three of them. Grubbs, occupying the body of the new universe’s Grubbs, had made sure to express a desire to spend some time with his uncle after his parents told him the truth in the aftermath of Gret’s salvation.

Several cities over, Kernel Fleck puts down the phone and leans back in his chair, smiling fondly to himself. He basks in the glow that comes with a good conversation for a moment longer, then picks up the phone again as well as a small, black notebook. After flipping through the pages for a bit he finally finds the name listed under the letter G. Grinning, he begins dialing the number.

In London, Juni Swan steps into a portal and out of this world. She arrives in the universe of the Demonata with magic blazing at her fingertips and a grim smile playing around the edges of her mouth. One of the Disciples – a new one; Juni has not met her before but she seems to be able to hold her own fairly well – follows closely behind her and they work in tandem, killing the demon that had attempted to cross before it can flee. Together, blood-drenched, they step back out of the portal just in time before it closes.

“Well done,” Juni pants, and the Disciple returns her smile easily enough.

In this new universe the power of the Kah-Gash has created, none of them are alone.

 

* * *

 

A couple of months later, there’s a knock on the front door of the mansion. For a brief moment Bec, in her viewing room, wonders what manner of being would be both crazy and capable enough to knock on the door of their little pocket-dimension mansion – but then there’s another knock, and this time she identifies the sound as coming from the screen she had built up.

Grubbs and Kernel have taken to spending most of their time inhabiting the new lives they created for themselves. Bec doesn’t begrudge them for it; she takes just as much joy watching them and making sure her own efforts at another life are going smoothly.

On the screen, Dervish appears to open the door while Grubbs and Bill-E wait behind him, their grins wide and self-assured. “Meet Kernel Fleck!”

Kernel, standing outside, smiles at them, then turns to someone currently hidden by the doorway.

“This is Juni Swan,” he says. For just a second he’s looking off into space, for some inexplicable reason winking at it – it must look ridiculous to the others, but Bec knows the gesture is meant for her and can’t help a smile in response, though Kernel won’t be able to see it. “We met on the train here. She tells me she’s also an acquaintance of yours, Dervish?”

Dervish is grinning like a man who’s just had all his plans work out. “Why don’t the two of you come on in? Meera should be along any minute now as well.”

There is a niggling feeling prodding at the back of her mind all of a sudden, and with a slight noise of concern Bec moves out of her viewing room. Outside, she steps out of the universe for a moment, dissolving her body – then, faster than thought, she reforms inside of Lord Loss’ castle. It looks remarkably unchanged, though Bec supposes that being the only demon of any power left in all the universe must bring at least some more decorative upsides with it.  

Lord Loss greets her inside the large entrance hall, gesturing for her to follow him with only the barest words of greeting. It is uncharacteristic of him, as is the way he all but hurries down the corridors but Bec chooses not to comment on it, instead following behind him until they reach the large throne room. As Lord Loss makes to sit down on the throne he gestures to one of the web-walls – Bec sees that there is a set-up much like the one they have back at their house, though to her utter surprise the feed currently showing on it is the one she had been watching herself.

The demon master doesn’t say anything for a long while, and Bec, after a moment of quiet consideration, conjures a chair next to him and settles down in it. Together, they watch the get-together in Dervish’s actual house. Kernel seems a bit awkward at first now that he’s back in Grubbs’ company, no doubt worrying about giving something away to Juni and Dervish. He settles in quickly enough, though, and Bec is glad to see that the same holds true for Grubbs. Juni and Dervish – having met, as Dervish had already hinted at, during a demon crossing at a punk concert – spend a few minutes catching up, before Meera arrives and there’s another round of greetings.

“I see both Grubbitsch and Cornelius have decided to rejoin the world,” Lord Loss eventually says.

“Just one of the perks of having created the universe and everyone in it,” she tells him.

“Indeed.” Lord Loss’ eyes flicker from her over to Juni's image, then to Kernel sitting next to her and animatedly regaling her and Dervish with some story or other. Grubbs, sitting on the sole chair, is watching them with a smile on his face. “Tell me, Bec, does it gall you to know that of the three of you, you yourself are the only one you weren’t able to save? Grubbitsch and Cornelius both got the chance to live a better life, as did Juni, but you died all alone in that tunnel. Abandoned by everyone,” he coos, tone sickly sweet concern, “even yourself.”

Bec, however, grins. “Who said I have to save everyone? More importantly,” here she scrunches up her face for a second, more for effect than anything, and changes the images reflected on the webs to one a couple of weeks earlier, “what made you think I won’t be visiting the new universe in person every now and again?”

_We’re going to meet again_ , the young Nadia Moore had told Bec, _and not just once. Many times._ Bec has every intent to make that prediction of hers come true.

On the screen, Juni Swan and a young woman step out of the rapidly-closing gash of a portal and back into London. There’s blood running from a small cut on Juni’s temple, and it looks as if the other woman’s arm is broken.

“Well done,” Juni pants as she wipes her hand across her forehead. Using the last residues of magic lingering around the closed portal, she closes the cut on her face.

Across from her, the Disciple smiles and heals a wound of her own; Juni waits until she is finished before gesturing at the chaos around them. Chairs and tables lie scattered all around, though as far as the both of them are able to tell, nobody save for the summoner actually got hurt in the crossing. “Let’s get out of here, Bec.”

On the screen Bec, in the body she has created, grins.

Back in Lord Loss’ castle, Bec turns to the demon master and raises a questioning eyebrow at him.

After a couple of seconds of silence, Lord Loss slowly, deliberately inclines his head and echoes Juni’s words: “Well done.”

Bec is not quite sure whether he’s being facetious, and so settles for responding, “I may hold a piece of the Kah-Gash, but even so I’m still human. And selfishness,” she says, smiling, “is one of humanity’s defining features.”

Lord Loss considers her answer, then makes as if to say something – but whatever his response might have been, it is drowned under a bout of laughter from Juni, quickly joined in by Grubbs and Kernel.

Bec smiles, and turns back to watch the others.


End file.
